Abbott announces late-breaking data on HeartMate 3 Heart Pump

Abbott announced new late-breaking data that show advanced heart failure patients living with its HeartMate 3 heart pump who didn’t receive aspirin as part of their blood-thinning medication regimen experienced fewer complications from bleeding and were associated with reduced hospital visits compared to patients who took aspirin daily following their implant. The data from the ARIES trial is the first to potentially shift how physicians manage their patients living with a HeartMate 3 heart pump. The data were presented during a late-breaking presentation at the 2023 American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia and simultaneously published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. The ARIES trial studied more than 600 patients and found that HeartMate 3 patients who didn’t receive aspirin but continued using the standard post-implant vitamin-K antagonist treatment regimen met the primary endpoint by showing non-inferiority of no aspirin to aspirin. The HeartMate 3 patients who did not take aspirin spent 47% fewer days in the hospital due to a nearly 40% decrease in bleeding events compared to patients who continued to take aspirin daily. “The ARIES study moves the needle forward in improving the journey of advanced heart failure patients with a marked improvement in bleeding events, healthcare resource use and cost-savings by a simple decision to avoid the use of aspirin,” said Mandeep Mehra, M.D., executive director of the Center for Advanced Heart Disease and the William Harvey Distinguished Chair at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass. “The data is so compelling that the magnitude of benefit observed in avoiding aspirin is similar to the impact of introducing a new device to the market.”